Poker Writer
ClubWPT Gold, the popular sweepstakes poker site, made waves over the last few days with a controversial new feature that allows players to reveal their opponents’ cards in exchange for a fee. Many players, including site-sponsored pro Doug Polk, criticized the move.
The brand new feature, revealed in a video on X, allows players to pay to reveal all hole cards after a hand, regardless of whether the players want to show or not. Costs seem to vary. Players have reported charges of slightly more than one big blind up to three. The fees go directly to ClubWPT Gold.
Never lose sleep over a poker hand again 👀 pic.twitter.com/B9YZWbBS6T
— ClubWPT Gold (@ClubWPTGold) August 14, 2025
Negative Reactions From Many Poker Players
The announcement was met with instant pushback. Many questioned if it was a joke, considering that the ClubWPT Gold X account has been known for making troll posts. But the feature has indeed become part of the software. After the conclusion of a hand, a button pops up offering to expose the hole cards for a posted fee.
Poker Hall of Famer Brian Rast ripped into the concept on X:
This is one of the worst ideas I’ve heard in poker.
If the opponent(s) got the money for being forced to reveal their hand… it would still be bad (don’t get me wrong) but at least semi-ethically defensible.
But the site monetizing revealing cards for their own gain?
GTFO
Likewise, 2025 WSOP player of the year Shaun Deeb said it would kill the momentum ClubWPT Gold has enjoyed recently:
The fact you haven’t canceled this yet is just awful awful marketing you were crushing it and long term going to kill your site
Many other players vowed they would never play on the site again. One of the many such comments summed up the issue with the feature:
This is actually making me leave this site for good. Someone paying to reveal hole cards is so against the thesis of poker.
It’s a game of deception and imperfect information when you allow someone to pay to take that huge part of the game away it’s horrible. Can’t bluff now.
The new revenue for the site comes as ClubWPT Gold has increasingly weathered anti-sweepstakes legislation from many state governments. Populous locales New Jersey and California have levied recent bans.
Many curious onlookers waited to see whether high-profile ClubWPT Gold ambassador Doug Polk would support the new hole-card reveal mechanic. Polk posted a seven-minute YouTube video outlining his opposition to the change.
The popular influencer has mercilessly criticized other sponsored pros for supporting what he viewed as anti-player policies in the past.
Polk did mention some positives of the feature, chiefly that it would help police collusion.
Still, he said he would talk to ClubWPT Gold brass about the change, though he admitted he doesn’t make the final decisions on such matters. He ended his video by summing up his take:
I do like overall where we (ClubWPT Gold) are headed, but I feel like this was not the right thing to do here. I feel like we should not have implemented this feature and if we did we should have paid the players part of the money.
Rabbit Hunting On Other Sites
The idea of revealing cards that a player never had in their hand certainly didn’t originate with ClubWPT Gold. Certain poker sites allow “rabbit hunting” — showing what the flop, turn, and/or river would have been if the hand had continued. ClubWPT Gold has taken this concept a step further with hole cards rather than community cards.
On the international scene, online giants GGPoker and PokerStars have rabbit hunting. GGPoker has had this feature for several years, while PokerStars implemented it in 2024. Winamax also introduced rabbit hunting in 2024, joining the likes of 888poker and partypoker, so it has become more standard than not.
Club-based mobile app KKPoker allows rabbit hunting but charges a tiny fee for each use, making it the most analogous to ClubWPT Gold’s new feature.
Still, revealing hole cards breaks new ground. It has far more of an effect on strategy than showing community cards. And based on the widespread reactions to ClubWPT Gold’s new feature, it’s ground that players did not want to see broken.
